Roadmap for EPSRC: Compliance with Research Data Management Expectations

University of Bath roadmap to meet the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) expectations regarding the management of and access to EPSRC-funded research data.

It summarises the University’s current position in research data management and sets out the actions needed to achieve full compliance by the 2015 deadline.

See also: Roadmap for EPSRC – University of Exeter an institutional response to the same mandate.

The roadmap was driven by the University of Bath through the University Research Committee and the Research Data Steering Group (established in 2011) to coordinate the institutional response to EPSRC expectations. Its implementation was supported by the Research360 project (funded by JISC) and by internal services such as Library/BUCS/UKOLN, aimed at developing institution-wide human and technical resources for research data management.

The University of Bath roadmap was developed to structure the institution’s response to EPSRC expectations on the management of and access to research data, with the aim of ensuring effective compliance before the 2015 deadline. The document summarises existing capabilities at the University and sets out the necessary actions—together with responsibilities and milestones—to consolidate an institutional data management framework aligned with funder requirements.

At an organisational level, the roadmap builds on the establishment of the Research Data Steering Group (January 2011), with a cross-institutional remit to coordinate the response, and it is integrated with the JISC-funded Research360 project, which was already driving the development of human and technical resources for data management across the institution. It was also intended that this roadmap would serve as the basis for an RDM strategy and a business case to align data management with the University’s corporate plans, and that its objectives, actions and milestones would feed into an ongoing operational plan.

In practical terms, the roadmap prioritises strengthening training and capacity building (for researchers and support services), centralising information and guidance through a single RDM website, embedding data management planning (DMPs) across the project lifecycle, and establishing a coordinated framework for the dissemination, discovery and citation of data and metadata (including templates for data access statements and the progressive use of robust identifiers). In parallel, it envisages advancing institutional infrastructure by leveraging existing resources such as Opus and expanding managed storage, as well as planning a data repository and mechanisms to inventory and track access requests.

Finally, the roadmap is also justified by strategic considerations: EPSRC is a key funder for Bath, and the framework warns that serious non-compliance after the deadline could have consequences for funding. In this sense, the document steers institutional action towards expected benefits such as increasing research visibility, enabling validation of results and promoting data reuse to maximise the value of public investment.

The roadmap is primarily addressed to the University’s governance bodies and the units responsible for implementing research data management (initiatives such as Research360, support services and infrastructure teams, and the research community).

EPSRC acts as an external driver that sets expectations and may require evidence of compliance.

Some of the activities proposed in the roadmap were already underway as part of the Research360 project, and it was expected that this document—together with a research data management strategy and a feasibility/business case—would align research data management activities with the University of Bath’s corporate plans.

The roadmap also states that the objectives, actions and milestones set out in the document would be used as the basis for an operational research data management plan.

The research undertaken to meet EPSRC expectations shows that the University already complies with all relevant legislation and has created a new research data management website. In addition, one of the outcomes of the Research360 project was the promotion of research data management across the institution.

The University also has an established repository (Opus) for research publications, and plans for a similar institutional repository for research data, which were at an early stage of development.

It was also decided that the new research data management policy would include a requirement for University researchers to indicate in all publications where the supporting data can be accessed.

In addition, the University created a research data management group to address long-term resourcing issues and investment needs.

La principal dificultad de la Universidad reside en el cumplimiento de la cuarta expectativa del EPSRC (incluir datos de investigación no digitales en el archivo existente de la institución), ya que la capacidad de almacenamiento físico está limitada por las restricciones de la infraestructura física.

Otro reto con el que se encuentran es que, aunque el repositorio de la Universidad de Bath utiliza identificadores de objetos digitales (DOI), estos aún no se asignan de forma rutinaria a los datos de investigación.

The University’s main difficulty lay in meeting the fourth EPSRC expectation (to include non-digital research data in the institution’s existing archive), as physical storage capacity was constrained by limitations in the available infrastructure.

Another challenge was that, although the University’s repository uses Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), these were not yet routinely assigned to research data.

• EPSRC Research Data Policy Framework: https://www.ukri.org/about-us/epsrc/our-policies-and-standards/policy-framework-on-research-data/
• University of Bath Roadmap for EPSRC: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/university-of-bath-roadmap-for-epsrc-compliance-with-research-dat/